Separating beauties from beasts

In June, I pre-ordered the new Erin Condren Life Planner 2014/2015, and I opted for the 18-month version that runs July 2014 through December 2015.

It was a major splurge for me because the Erin Condren Life Planner I purchased is $50 USD. (Yeah, my wallet felt the burn like thighs on a StairMaster!) And it was an extra $5 to get the 18-month version instead of the 12-month version (January 2015 to December 2015).

You can customize your Erin Condren Life Planner to include a lot of bells of whistles, and that’s the advantage of purchasing it compared to a generic kind. This allows for greater self expression.

It has been since university that I used a planner, and now that things are getting really busy for me, I thought it was worth the investment in not only a practical planner, but one that also looks really nice. This is the Rolls Royce of planners, and considering that I intend to use this on a daily basis, I can justify the high price tag.

I’ve been going through a lot of traumatic personal things, and having this planner helps me to look forward to a bright future. It’s my little piece of optimistic sunshine that’s a daily reminder. To me, it represents more than just a way to organize my work, personal, blogging, and other schedules. It symbolizes the fact that I am setting goals to work toward to build and improve my skills and my perspective. Even when life throws curve balls at you, it’s up to you to turn things around and rise above.

This blog post contains tons of photos of the planner I chose to customize, as well as some Erin Condren and non-Erin-Condren accessories that I purchased to use with it.

Erin Condren Life Planner Pictures

Even the box that the Erin Condren Life Planner was shipped in is pretty! I love how the ‘experience’ begins even with the box.

The seafoam green tissue paper was so pretty. I love how much thought was placed into wrapping my Life Planner!

The bubble wrap kept all of the contents safe and undamaged during transit.

I asked the Erin Condren team to use the script font for my name and then the plain text for my website. I wanted just “SwatchAndLearn” to be colourful, and I’m so happy with how it turned out! 🙂 I blanked out the rest of my name for privacy.

The elastic band I ordered has a loop that conveniently can hold an Erin Condren marker.

The monthly tabs are laminated for durability.

The design I chose was the Erin Condren Classic Life Planner in Fleur Feliz. I really love the rainbow colours!

Edit: I forgot to mention that this year, the Erin Condren planners have removable and interchangeable covers! That means if you want several different covers with different names or designs, you can just switch out the old one and pop in a new one.

Inside the front cover, you can put your information. I think I’ll use this as a dashboard for cute post-its and flags that I plan to purchase.

I love this first design because I have a strong work ethic. Totally agree with the statement of working hard!

And hells yeah! I play hard, too!

Here’s the yearly overview.

I like this quote because I’m a firm believer in happiness over perfection. It’s actually one of my life philosophies. If you follow my blog, you’ll know this.

Do you remember Spirograph from back in the day? Well, it reminds me of those! When I was a kid, I had a knock-off of the Spirograph, and I loved it! Haha, I would create designs all day!

This is what the monthly view looks like. It begins with a Sunday.

The weekly view begins on a Monday, which I prefer because when I think of my week, I often think of Monday being the beginning.

You get a clear ruler that can be popped in and out easily. It also acts as a bookmark. It’s made out of a sturdy plastic, which I like. Mine was laminated a little weird, though because there was a horizontal line near the bottom. EDIT: Thanks to a sweet Swatch And Learn reader, I was informed that there is a plastic film that protects the ruler. I couldn’t even see it, haha, so I felt silly not knowing to peel it off. I’m happy to report that I peeled the film off, and the ruler is in pristine condition – no weird line!)

It snaps in easily, and it won’t cover up much, which I like.

You also get a few pages of lined sheets.

There are blank pages with neat designs on the top.

At the end, there’s a yearly view for 2015 and 2016.

There are stickers for birthdays, and they are re-positionable.

You also get these stickers.

Plus there are blank stickers that you can write on.

The Keep It Together folder has a deep pocket on the front and the back.

This calendar lets you fill in important dates once and then you can transfer it to your future planners.

The Erin Condren Life Planner also has a clear plastic pouch that’s attached. I really like this because you can carry little knick-knacks with you.

They also included a couple of cards and coil paper clips.

They gave me a complimentary envelope filled with stickers!

They also included these stickers.

The Erin Condren catalogue includes information and prices on the other items they sell.

Accessories for My Erin Condren Life Planner

I purchased the Coil Clips because you can insert things into your Erin Condren Life Planner. They can snap it in and be removed easily.

The elastic bands keep the pages together. Currently, I’m using the silver one.

Here are the markers I purchased. They don’t bleed through the pages.

I also bought the Papermate Flair felt tip pens, which also don’t bleed through the pages.

When I went to Staples, I found cute washi tape for $2.99 CAD.

I couldn’t resist the owls.

And this floral design came home with me.

At Michael’s, I picked up more washi tape. You can’t see in this photo, but they have cute polka dots!

These Hello Kitty sticky flags were really cute, so I had to get them. They were from Michael’s.

At Michael’s, I also found a sticker book with Hello Kitty stickers. It was around $3.99 CAD, and there are 340 stickers!

I didn’t take photos of all the sticker pages, but here are a few!

Here are more stickers I purchased to jazz up my Erin Condren Life Planner!

The shipping was pricey – $40 USD! But I received my planner within a week of pre-ordering it. I was surprised how fast it arrived, considering all the customization.

I love how the Erin Condren team put so much attention to detail!

If you’re interested in purchasing an Erin Condren planner, check out her website. (That is NOT an affiliate link. I purposely chose not to use an affiliate link.)

Do you use a planner? Have you ever purchased an Erin Condren Life Planner? Do you jazz up planners with washi tape and stickers?

I’ve thought about buying an Erin Condren planner because they are so cute and colorful but never did. I’ve been using a filofax for a couple years now and like it a lot because it’s ring bound so you can open it and take things out and add things in.

Hehe, I know, right? They have so many designs to choose from and also a variety of colours. You can really find something that fits in with your style. And if you really can’t decide, at least now they make interchangeable covers, so you can get more than one!

That is my cover from last year! It got so many compliments. I just received my second LP and I need to switch over to it! On your ruler…there is a thin protective film on it. Have you pulled it off? That might solve your line issue 🙂

I went with the “Beautiful Reasons” cover in Navy and Lemon! It’s gorgeous. I’m a part of a group on facebook called “We Love EC” and they have some great idea for managing your planner, and I think you would like it since you bought some washi and stickers. 🙂 They are about to cap the membership though, so you should join now if you want to! (They are also how I found out about the film on the ruler – I would not have noticed otherwise!)

Wow, it looks like a rainbow exploded in every picture! I love it! 🙂 All the colors remind me of those Lisa Frank products I used to covet when I was a kid. I always need a good planner in my life, since I’m pretty forgetful and don’t remember things unless I write them down. Now I want to look into getting one of these fun ones…if I have to look at my planner every day, it might as well make me smile!

I’ve been drooling over these since I first saw them a while back. The steep price stops me, after all it’s only good for a year. But the planners are so pretty and I love the fact that it is old fashioned paper and ink and not high tech. I may have to splurge and treat myself to one of these instead of getting a new nail polish collection. (gasp…. I know give up polish for a planner? and with all the new collections coming out?!!!)